How LA's 'Porn Valley' became the adult entertainment capital of the world

A makeup artist gets adult actress Nicole Aniston ready for a film shoot in San Fernando Valley, widely considered the porn capital of the world.
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In the 1950s, Hugh Hefner spun an idea for a risqué men's magazine into a multimedia empire. The Playboy founder died this week at the age of 91, leaving behind an iconic brand worth a reported $500 million.

Playboy Enterprises has always based its operations out of nearby Los Angeles, but the sheer size of the adult entertainment industry to the north allowed the magazine to thrive during the sexual revolution.

Since the 1970s, the hills above Hollywood have played host to a booming pornography industry. A majority of American sex films are shot there in warehouses and private homes, helping the San Fernando Valley rake in $4 billion in annual sales in its '90s heyday.

How did an out-of-the-way desert suburb become the porn capital of the world? Location, location, location.

Adult film director Holly Randall photographs models on set in San Fernando Valley.
Melia Robinson/Business Insider

At its onset, the porn industry stretched across Los Angeles, San Francisco, and New York, where the entertainment industry concentrated. Paul Fishbein, cofounder of adult trade group AVN Media Network, told the Associated Press in 2002 that the business migrated to San Fernando Valley because of "low rents and access to the mainstream movie business."

San Fernando Valley's proximity to Los Angeles helped create a pipeline of Hollywood talent, which included directors, crew, and actors when they needed a little side income.

Some of the most iconic photographers for Playboy, including Stephen Wayda and Suze Randall (who became the first female staff photographer for the magazine in the 1970s), called San Fernando Valley home.

The valley's dirty little secret offered particularly attractive job prospects in the 1990s, as the mainstream television and film industry began to dry up. Studios were shipping mainstream productions abroad, where they cost less to shoot. Entertainment jobs in Los Angeles shorted, and thousands of employees marched Hollywood Boulevard in protest.

While feature filmmaking plummeted 13% in 1999, adult movie production rose 25%, the LA Times reported. And the funnel between Los Angeles and San Fernando Valley grew larger.

A makeup artist fixes the hair of adult actress Ariana Marie before a film shoot in San Fernando Valley.
Melia Robinson/Business Insider

Porn Valley may not be the porn capital for long.

In 2012, Los Angeles County approved a ballot measure that required adult actors to wear condoms on-camera, causing a mass exodus from San Fernando Valley. The number of adult video permits filed in the county sunk 95% between 2012 and 2016, and many employees fled to Las Vegas, Nevada, where a restriction has yet to be passed.

Last year, the proposition was overturned in Los Angeles County, which porn industry leaders say will encourage the adult entertainment business to return to San Fernando Valley.

"Production out-of-state is a pain in the butt," Adam Grayson, chief financial officer at Evil Angel, a maker and distributor of adult films, told the Los Angeles Times in 2016. "You got to buy a lot of Southwest Airlines tickets. People would love to come back here."